How Many of You are Married?

There is a general concern about the future of marriage in the conservative universe.

In my experience, the rhetoric doesn’t always follow the actions. One of my staunchest conservative friends is single and almost 50, and has never been married. Many of my very conservative girl friends have either never married or are divorced. Some are even single mothers.

So, despite all the glory of marriage and the doom and gloom talk, is it just gays and polygamists killing marriages? Who is pr…

I have a conservative friend (woman) who is 52 and never married. She did, however, have a child at 16 that she gave up for adoption. My friend is kind of an independent, free-spirited, artsy type. Although she continues to try to find someone to share her life with, I do believe that she is in love with the idea of being in love but actually sharing a home together where she isn’t the one making all of the decisions would be difficult for her.

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I know it doesn’t match with your anecdotal experience but statistically speaking people who are married tend to vote quite differently from people who are not, particularly if you’re female. · 10 minutes ago

I am certainly not claiming expertise based on my personal experience. However I do I know a lot more married (stable) couples who vote Democrat than Republican. Perhaps where I live is an anomaly.

I’ve been married for 36 years to a wonderful man that I married at the age of 19. We have 5 amazing children and 2-plus-one-in-the-oven even more amazing grandchildren. It is harder to get married than it used to be, though, because cultural assumptions have changed. I think most young people plan to get married eventually, but think they have plenty of time and will do everything else first. It used to be that marriage was a priority, and there was a dating culture that pushed people in that direction. Couples did not assume that sex would happen as soon as they started dating, and for many it happened (imagine!) AFTER marriage. Now, even for people who want to marry, the pathway is far less clear. Sure, some people find their way there, but it’s far harder to do so. Dating culture has become very odd–who asks? Who pays? If you are a person who doesn’t believe in sex before marriage and want someone like-minded, how do you find out about this? The assumptions that used to carry a relationship along are sadly gone.